YOUR recent Big Read article (“Time to address climate change or Glasgow faces deluge by the River Clyde”, The Herald, June 18) does not stand up to scrutiny. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has projected that, in the Clyde catchment, winter rainfall will increase by 42 per cent by 2050. Scottish rainfall has been at or near a 1,500mm per annum average for decades. There is no discernible upward trend. An analyst in Geneva or New York, operating a computer model, probably came up with the 42% rainfall increase. The WHO and others have plenty of “previous” when it comes to doom-laden predictions and forecasts that never come anywhere near the actual outcome. This should have been pointed out. At the current rate of annual sea level rise, the Glasgow City Council/Sepa forecast of a 0.85m sea level rise will take more than 500 years. If there is compelling evidence that this is suddenly going to accelerate, this should have been presented.

The discontinuation of dredging the Clyde, the narrowing of the river and the increased flood risk that results from these were mentioned several times. However, the patently obvious fix for this – namely that of the straightforward housekeeping activity of renewed river dredging – was not proposed. This would be an eminently sensible and low-cost solution but is perhaps too mundane for an article seemingly in pursuit of on-trend climate alarmism. The rate-paying property owners along the Clyde will be very happy when the flood risk part of their insurance premiums reduces once it is pointed out that Glasgow City Council is taking proven and pro-active flood mitigation action in the form of removing sand and silt from the riverbed.

How many council and quango employees, consultants and others are expending time and taxpayer-funded money responding to the needless anxiety created by the WHO, UN and others? This is clearly not productive and is symptomatic of a society and an economy becoming used to growth-stifling bureaucracy and activity undertaken for its own sake. Do we want to see this type of waste continue when common sense analysis defies catastrophic predictions and simple solutions are perfectly obvious?

Articles like this should be warning people to ignore all the hype, hyperbole and hockey stick forecasts purveyed by agencies with an existence to justify and millions of dollars of funding at stake. Focus on the actual trends. In doing so, don’t rely on others to interpret for you. Access the reported weather and other data and assess it for yourself. In almost all cases, you will find that the hysterical headlines bear no relation at all to the source information.

Andy Cartwright, Glasgow.

THE NEW WORKING HIERARCHY

DESPITE usually agreeing with most of Iain Macwhirter's articles, I must take issue with his contention that "many public sector employees aren't really working class at all" ("The train for working-class heroes has left the station", The Herald, June 22).

I assume Mr Macwhirter has not recently had to employ a tradesmen. A joiner, electrician, decorator or especially a plumber, can earn more in a day than many public sector staff can earn in a week.

If the tradesman is self-employed and paid in cash, as many are, they have no deductions. These are the "non-working class" workers, not public servants.

M Carr, Glasgow.

• I AGREE with most of what Dr Angus Macmillan (Letters, June 23) says, but the issue of a "glossy-magazine approach to serious issues" runs far deeper than the seemingly well-intended intervention of one high-profile individual. While I am no royalist, my original intention (Letters, June 22) was to suggest that one can oppose an institution without feeling the need to attack the individuals within it and I stand by this point of view, especially when the attack is largely unwarranted, as I believe it to be on this occasion.

The Duchess of Cambridge is not an expert in child development and nor is she a professional who works in the field. She does, however, have a public profile whether we like it or not and if she chooses to use it to raise awareness of important social issues I still don't see why she should be criticised for it.

David Gray, Glasgow.

ROOT OUT TODAY'S SLAVERY

THERE has been a lot of debate in The Herald about whether apologies/compensation/reparation should be offered to those countries whose peoples have been enslaved over the centuries.

A couple were recently given significant jail sentences after being convicted of enslaving more than 40 adult males (perhaps many more) in the last decade, brought over from Slovakian orphanages and forced to work long unpaid hours in their businesses including a hand car wash, living in squalid conditions and also being forced to sign on for benefits that were immediately taken from them.

And where were these heinous crimes perpetrated? Actually, in Bristol, where there was so much public outrage about the participation of Edward Colston in the traditional slave trade, a local mob tore down his statue and threw it in the river in 2020.

But they weren't to know slavery was alive and well in their home town, were they?

Let's root out and deal with the current slavers. When we've sorted that, we can then debate the historical issues.

John F Crawford, Lytham.

HE REALLY SHOOK THEM UP

I NOTE with interest Wednesday's Remember when ... picture ("Remember when ... Ally Macleod arrived home from Argentina in 1978", The Herald, June 22).

I always felt that Ally MacLeod didn’t get the credit he deserved for getting the national team to the World Cup in Argentina.

I don’t think this was helped by Andy Cameron’s song. This built up expectations, and when Scotland were knocked out, Ally’s reputation was trashed – unfairly in my view.

Gordon W Smith, Paisley.

SPAGHETTI WHOOPS

IN response to David Miller (Letters, June 22) and by converting French to English usage, Dorothy Dennis (Letters, June 23) writes that she proposes to order a merang in a cafay.

My eldest son, a Gaelic speaker, was being challenged at the number of “modern” words imported into Gaelic, the inference being Gaelic was an old language lacking contemporary usage, when compared to English. What for example, said the unthinking challenger, is the Gaelic word for spaghetti? My son replied: what is the English word?

Alan M Morris, Blanefield.